libs-base/ANNOUNCE

1 Announcement
**************

The GNUstep Base Library, version 1.27.0, is now available.

1.1 What is the GNUstep Base Library?
=====================================

The GNUstep Base Library is a library of general-purpose, non-graphical
Objective C objects.  For example, it includes classes for strings,
object collections, byte streams, typed coders, invocations,
notifications, notification dispatchers, moments in time, network ports,
remote object messaging support (distributed objects), and event loops.

   It provides functionality that aims to implement the non-graphical
portion of the OpenStep standard (the Foundation library).

   There is more information available at the GNUstep homepage at
'http://www.gnustep.org'.

1.2 Noteworthy changes in version '1.27.0'
==========================================

Aside from an assortment of bugfixes, this release includes a lot of
improvements for Android support as well as numerous new classes and
methods.

   * Expose GNU TLS wrappers and add methods to get certificate expiry.
   * Improve thread safety when using zombies, particularly on
     statup/shutdown.
   * Improvements for Ukrainian localization.
   * Decreased ICU requirements to 49 to support Windows 2000.
   * Simplifications and fixes in GSPrivateSymbolPath().
   * GSMime improvements (word encoding specifier, utf-8 improvements
     encoding quoted words with multibyte characters)
   * NSJSONSerialization fixes for codepoints over 0x7f.
   * NSCharacterSet support for URL*AllowedCharacterSet and declarations
     for new character sets.
   * NSString implementations for new methods
     stringByRemovingPercentEncoding/
     stringByAddingPercentEncodingWithAllowedCharacterSet:.
   * Fixed a crash in gdomap when an invalid hostname is given for the
     -M option.
   * In NSString.m, removed functions urldecode() and ishex() which were
     mistakenly neither namespaced nor declared static and thus could
     have conflicted with non-library code.
   * Fixed libdispatch configuration switch so -enable-libdispatch works
     correctly; correctly checking for HAVE_LIBDISPATCH_RUNLOOP.
   * Updated libdispatch runloop integration so it is compatible with
     Swift's corelibs libdispatch release (from
     github.com/apple/swift-corelibs-libdispatch).  The libdispatch must
     be compiled with INSTALL_PRIVATE_HEADERS=YES.
   * In NSThread, spinlocks implemented using builtins to be able to
     target platforms without pthread_spin_lock(), such as Android
     targeting API level < 24.
   * In NSLog on Android, send logs to syslog.
   * Implementation of NSOrderedSet.
   * When ./configuring, link against libandroid on Android.
   * In NSBundle, allow integrating with Android asset manager using
     +[NSBundle setJavaAssetManager:withJNIEnv:], enabling use of
     mainBundle's pathForResource:ofType:, -URLForResource:ofType: and
     similar; referencing Info.plist if it exists in Android assets; use
     of NSFileManager's fileExistsAtPath: et al and
     isReadableFileAtPath:; reading files using NSFileHandle APIs; use
     of NSDirectoryEnumerator to enumerate Android assets from the main
     bundle.
   * In NSBundle, localization support on Android.
   * In NSProcessInfo, automatic initialization on Android using a fake
     executable path (/data/data/<app identifier>/Resources).
   * In NSData, improvements in reading Android assets.
   * Various improvements in the mechanism to report memory usage of
     individual objects.
   * Skeletal implementation of NSUbiquitousKeyValueStore.
   * Implementation of NSByteCountFormatter.
   * Fixes to writing large HTTPS requests (GSSocketStream,
     NSURLProtocol).
   * In gdomap.c, fix detection of local networks.
   * In NSArray's -removeObjectsInArray:, prevent some crashes.
   * In GSTLS, avoid setting session priority twice.
   * In NSFileHandle, fix so that setting certificate information does
     not discard any other options already set.
   * In GSXML's -fatalErrorFunction, use the correct function to get the
     line number.
   * In NSOperation's _execute, ensure lock gets released on an error by
     surrounding with NS_DURING.
   * Generics support in NSHashTable.
   * Implementation of NSProgress.
   * Skeleton implementation of NSURLComponents.
   * In NSSortDescriptor, added
     -sortDescriptorWithKey:ascending:descending:.
   * In NSOperationQueue, added -addOperationWithBlock.
   * In NSFileManager, added
     -URLForDirectory:inDomain:appropriateForURL:create:error: and
     -enumeratorAtURL:includingPropertiesForKeys:options:errorHandler:.
     Also added NSItemReplacementDirectory constant, and updated stub
     implementation for -URLForDirectory:shouldCreate:error:.  Added
     -initWithDirectoryPath:...  with additional parameters skipHidden
     and errorHandler.
   * In NSDictionary, fixed keysSortedByValueUsingComparator:.
   * Moved NSFileWrapper from -gui to -base.
   * Added NSFilePresenter, NSFileVersion and NSFileCoordinator.
   * Added NSPersonComponents and NSPersonNameComponentsFormatter.
   * Added units of measurement classes such as NSUnit, NSMeasurement,
     NSMeasurementFormatter, NSEnergyFormatter, NSLengthFormatter,
     NSMassFormatter.
   * In NSUnit, support for NSUnitArea, NSUnitConcentrationMass,
     NSUnitDispersion, NSUnitElectricCharge, NSUnitIlluminance,
     NSUnitElectricCurrent, NSUnitElectricPotentionDifference,
     NSElectricResistance, NSUnitMass, NSUnitEnergy, NSUnitFrequency,
     NSUnitPower, NSUnitSpeed, NSUnitFuelEfficiency, NSUnitPressure,
     NSUnitVolume, NSUnitLength.
   * Support for data directory on Android introduces
     GSInitializeProcessAndroid and makes use of the path returned by
     Context.getFilesDir() as the basis for storing data (e.g.
     NSUserDefaults) and when querying for directory paths
     (NSLibraryDirectory, NSApplicationSupportDirectory, etc.).
   * Placeholder NSScript* classes.  Added NSUserActivity,
     NSObjectScripting, NSHFSFileTypes, NSAppleEventManager and
     NSAppleEventDescriptor.
   * Added NSDateInterval intersectionWithDateInterval:.
   * Added NSBackgroundActivityScheduler.
   * Added NSISO8601DateFormatter and NSMetadataAttributes.
   * Added NSOrtogrpahy and NSLinguisticTagger.
   * Added NSExtensionItem, NSExtensionContext,
     NSExtensionRequestHandling, and NSItemProvider and
     NSItemProviderReadingWriting.
   * Updated timezone info for NSTimeZones.
   * On Android, support for NSTemporaryDirectory to use
     Context.getCacheDir(), and cleaning it up in
     GSInitializeProcessAndroid() given there is no support for temp
     directory before Android API 26.  Also used with NSCachesDirectory
     + NSUserDomainMask.
   * NSXPCConnection fixes.
   * NSException symbolication support using libunwind (used when
     backtrace() is unavailable).
   * Travis build improvements to use new runloop integration and
     gnustep-2.0 runtime.
   * In NSKeyValueObserving, implement two missing methods for NSArray:
     -addObserver:options:context: and
     -removeObserver:fromObjectsAtIndexes:forKeyPath:.
   * Updated NSUUID to use instancetype.
   * Added support for NSDate constants in NSPredicate.
   * Fixed a NSTimer bug with blocks.
   * In GSTLS, do not put password in the hash key of the credentials,
     and to avoid logging it when debugging is on.
   * Improvements in NSConcreteHashTable and NSConcreteMapTable.
   * In various places, switch away from deprecated
     CREATE_AUTORELEASE_POOL() to use the ARC-compatible ENTER_POOL and
     LEAVE_POOL macros.
   * When building the list of hosts to be probed to see if they have
     gdomap servers, fix code to include those explicitly defined in the
     config file.  Add -S option to list the addresses of the known
     gdomap servers.
   * Backward compatibility fix for ICU 65.
   * Update GSPrivateSymbolPath() so that, on the path where
     LINKER_GETSYMBOL is not available, we attempt to lookup classes
     using the prefix ._OBJC_CLASS_ for the 2.0 ABI (earlier ABIs use a
     prefix of __objc_class_name_ for the class definition.
   * Fix parsing of NSURLResponse content type header.
   * Fix for class lookup when using the 2.0 ABI.
   * Fixed NSURLComponents setURL: throwing exceptions when URL didn't
     have all expected parts caused by rangeOfString: throwing for nil
     values.
   * Added NSURLQueryItem implementation.

1.3 Where can you get it? How can you compile it?
=================================================

The gnustep-base-1.27.0.tar.gz distribution file has been placed at
<ftp://ftp.gnustep.org/pub/gnustep/core>.

   It is accompanied by gnustep-base-1.27.0.tar.gz.sig, a PGP signature
which you can validate by putting both files in the same directory and
using:

     gpg --verify gnustep-base-1.27.0.tar.gz.sig

   Signature has been created using the key with the following
fingerprint:

     83AA E47C E829 A414 6EF8  3420 CA86 8D4C 9914 9679

   Read the INSTALL file or the GNUstep-HOWTO for installation
instructions.

1.4 Where do I send bug reports?
================================

Please log bug reports on the GNUstep project page
<http://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?group=gnustep> or send bug reports to
<bug-gnustep@gnu.org>.

1.5 Obtaining GNUstep Software
==============================

Check out the GNUstep web site.  (<http://www.gnustep.org/>) and the GNU
web site.  (<http://www.gnu.org/>)